Revision & Exam Practice for the “legacy” A Level qualifications including:

• Edexcel (Unit 3C – Representative Processes in the USA, Unit 4C – Governing the USA)
• AQA (Unit 3A – The Politics of the USA, Unit 4A – The Government of the USA)
• OCR (F855 – US Government & Politics)

REVISE THE US PRESIDENCY

How to use these questions for revision and exam practice:

1. For short-answer questions, write a 3 paragraph response using the PEEACH paragraph structure (P=point, E=evidence, E=explain, A=argument, C=counter argument, H=how does this answer the question?)
2. Once you have completed your question, read the indicative content and the mark scheme.
3. Complete the “Make It Better” (MIB) Task:
   1. Highlight the parts of the indicative content your were able to fully explain and exemplify in green.
   2. Highlight the parts of the indicative content you partially explained and/or exemplified in yellow.
   3. Highlight the parts of the indicative content which you did not include in red.
4. Using the mark scheme, award yourself a level and a mark – compare this to your target grade – are you on track to achieve this in the examination?
5. There is also a space for you to add additional notes and/or examples that don’t appear in the indicative content, or add better explanations, or include additional, points from the indicative content.

How much influence does the President have over the legislative process? (15)

 Indicative Content

• The president attempts to set the legislative agenda for the year in the State of the Union address, and usually proposes the bulk of the most significant legislation each year.
• The extent of the president’s influence over the legislative process depends on party control of Congress; if both houses of Congress are controlled by the opposing party to the president, Congress may well be resistant to his proposals, and the opposing party’s leadership may even try to take the legislative initiative itself, as happened after the election of a Republican Congress in 1994.
• High poll ratings give the president increased authority and create a political cost for congressmen in opposing a popular president; conversely, poor ratings will weaken the president’s authority and impose no costs on congressional opposition.
• A first term president will almost always have more influence than a second term president, and a second term president’s influence will usually suffer a further decline after the mid-terms.
• The extent of the president’s influence will depend on his success in exercising the ‘power to persuade’; as well as using the White House staff, the president may become involved in the process personally, e.g. President Obama reportedly took some undecided representatives on Air Force One to press his case for health care reform. He can also use the presidential ‘bully pulpit’ to pressure Congress via public opinion, e.g. by using the weekly radio and Internet address, and it has become a standard technique for presidents to take policies ‘on the road’ to generate support and show personal commitment to the cause. • At times of national emergency, Congress is likely to accede to anything the president wants, e.g. the very broad resolution passed in the wake of the attacks of September 2001.
• In extremis, the president can threaten to veto bills, although this can of course be over-ridden, and may in any event be counter-productive. President Clinton famously promised in the 1994 State of the Union to veto any bill which did not guarantee health coverage for all Americans, and no bill ultimately emerged from Congress at all.